Candy Paint, Please Help...

[ShaolinMassa]

I don't know if this is the right forum but I couldnt find a forum specifically for paint. I got the haynes manual for painting and all the tools I need and I am going to spray my car myself but I want a candy color and I need to know what to get at the store. And if the candy paint is used by itself. For example if I want candy red do I get a red paint then spray that and then put the candy coating on top or is the candy paint used by itself?

[mike@af]

First off, painting is not easy. Second, its not cheap. Third, it takes hours and hours and hours of practice to get a good paint job. Have you ever done this before? If not, I would suggest taking it to a body shop to be painted, other wise you are in for a lot of trouble, money, and headaches.

IMO you dont sound like you have painted before. Sorry if I am wrong. You need to spend several hundred hours practicing before you paint something you want to drive/sell. Painting looks easy, but its all the contrary.

A candy paint job is called a three-stage paint. It contains a translucent pearly, flake, or color of the base. The base is usually bronze, silver, or gold. Most candy paint schemes use gold, and gold flake as a base. But you cant just jump in with a gold base, you need to prep the car first.

First you need to try to remove a great deal of the paint off the car with a grinder and a variety of flap and polish wheels. At least make sure the clear coat is removed and the paint is scuffed, but to a smooth surface. This is a tedious task. After sanding and scuffing wash the car down thoroughly and make sure all the soap has been removed.

Next you need to prime the car. Most applications use and epoxy primer because it can be applied over a variety surfaces instead of a specific surface primer. The epoxy primer is two parts. dont forget you need a reducer so it can flow through the paint gun. Too much reducer and the paint will not adhere to the surface properly. Too little and you will end up with fisheyes. The primer stage is the most important stage of a car paint application. If its not done properly or is not done well the whole paint application is going to be bad. After the primer has cured wet sand it with high grit paper. If you sand in one area too much and go through you need to start all over.

After wet sanding the primer you need to mix your base. The base will consist of a reducer and the base color. There are a few types of bases, acrylic-lacquer, acrylic-urethane, acrylic-enamel, and so on. The best is acrylic-urethane, right behind that is acrylic lacquer. Acrylic-urethane can be expensive. The base coat for candy red should be gold. Dont try to spray flake for your first time, just trust me. Mix the gold base with a reducer and spray.

After spraying the gold basecoat you will apply the second stage, the translucent color. For your application you will apply translucent red over the gold base. Now what ever type of paint you picked for the base coat (i.e. acrylic-urethane), you will need to use the same type of paint for the second stage. Mix your reducer and spray.

Now comes the fun part. Wet sand the whole entire car with 2000-8000 grit paper. If you sand in one spot to long you will go through the paint and need to start the whole process over. Make sure you always a have a nice pool of water so you are never dry sanding. This process will take sometime, but its the best way to get a nice paint job. Make sure you rinse the car with water extremely well after sanding

Next and last stage is the clear coat. The clear coat needs to be the same type of paint as the two previous coats. Like all the other stages you need to reduce the paint. After the paint has cured use rubbing compound first, then wax.

Also, depending on the cars condition under the paint you may need a surfacer. Another tip is you need to use the same brand of paint throughout the entire process, as well as the same type.

By all means this is not for amateurs. You need to spend hundreds of hours painting before you do it on a real car. I reccomend you just take your car to a professional. If you think turbocharging a civic is technical, you have met your match when it comes to painting, and the paint with probably win.

[ShaolinMassa]

No I have never painted before, but I took it to a body shop the first time and paid several thousand dollars to get some body work done and to get the whole car painted. After a few weeks the paint on the entire car was chipping and bubbling, I never got any of my money back so I figure it can't possibly be any worse if I do it myself and i'll save some money also. (Oh and at the time I knew nothing about painting cars, but I told the guy to sand the black coat of paint that was on the car first before he sprayed the new color that I wanted which was silver and he didnt cuz after the silver flaked off all the black was still there).

I am willing to spend some money practicing. I also bought the "Haynes automotive body repair and painting manual" and it goes through all the steps with pics. I know it isn't easy but I am willing to spend some time doing it right.

Thanks for the info on the paint this is exactly what I needed to know, i appreciate the help...my friend has a very old car that is all banged up so I am gonna practice on that first before I try my car, i'll keep you guys posted...thanks again...

[mospeed1]

also candy is hard to macth(if you have an accident and have to repaint a bumper or something)

[mike@af]

Hey if you need anymore help PM me or post here.

[WRECKAMENDER]

Usually with paint jobs you get what you paid for.I'm assuming for several thousand dollars you likely had some collision work to be done and decided to have the rest of the car painted.At any rate a reputable body shop would stand behind their work.The obviously did something wrong if the paint is bubbling and pealing after only a few weeks!Most likely a moisture problem or insufficient flash times.At any rate you've got a mess to deal with now,simply sanding the existing finish and applying a new topcoat won't help.A topcoat is only as good as the undercoat so the new paint will have to be removed...much more time and material.DO NOT use a grinder though if your gonna attempt this by yourself,you're sure to leave nasty grinder marks at the least and likely warp the metal especially if it'
s a later model car with thinner sheet metal.If the car was in my shop and the paint was this fresh and assuming they didn't have a bake booth,I would likely use a chemical stripper which would at least quickly remove the new paint.This is a messy job and you have to take care not to let the stripper run into unwanted areas such as the jambs.I would be thoroughly P.O.ed and demand that whoever did the work to help you out.In my experience,I've never seen a shade tree paint job look at all impressive.Matter of fact I've never seen a vehicle come into my shop"ready to paint"that I would want to put my name on.Good luck to ya!

[ShaolinMassa]

Yea I had some body work done on the left side fo the vehicle. Well I live in the Bahamas and when this kind of thing happens there isn't much you can do about it.

I want to take off all the paint though all the way to the metal and start from there. There is the silver that is on there now and the black paint is still under that, will the paint stripper take care of all of that or would I be better sanding it down by hand?

[mike@af]

Heres what to do, get some heavy rubber gloves and a steel wool pad. Pour some MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone) on the steel wool pad and rub the paint. Make sure you dont get it on anything but metal, it is a very strong chemical. If you are worried to use MEK use brake fluid or CSC (Castol Super Cleaner).

[ShaolinMassa]

Ok, just a question, brake fluid? Brake fluid is strong enough to remove paint?

[ShaolinMassa]

If any has any ideas on colors can you let me know what you think also, I decided to forget the candy and just paint it all black. But I will be working on the interior on the weekend. It is all leather, I am going to spray the leather. So the outside will be black, I am gonna change all my wiring, shift, cig lighter, etc. to blue, so what I want to know is if you think the dash would look neat with that painted white or should I paint the dash blue also?

[mike@af]

Originally Posted by ShaolinMassa

Ok, just a question, brake fluid? Brake fluid is strong enough to remove paint?

Yes brake fluid is a very strong paint remover. It will take some rubbing probably. What kind of car are you painting? If its a newer car it may be powerder coated, then you have a problem striping with just brakefluid.

Originally Posted by ShaolinMassa

If any has any ideas on colors can you let me know what you think also, I decided to forget the candy and just paint it all black. But I will be working on the interior on the weekend. It is all leather, I am going to spray the leather. So the outside will be black, I am gonna change all my wiring, shift, cig lighter, etc. to blue, so what I want to know is if you think the dash would look neat with that painted white or should I paint the dash blue also?

Why are you painting you interior? I have seen people paint there interior before and it looks like absolute shit. It cracks, fades, and other problems arise. Not to mention usually flakes off and sticks to your pants, or melts with the summer heat. If you wanted a different color interior you should have it re upholstered.

[ShaolinMassa]

It is a 1995 BMW 325IS, I just wated a different color on the interior, everything is black and I wanted some contrast...

[mike@af]

If you wanted to paint stuff paint the plastic parts just like you would the car. That would give it some contrast.

[ShaolinMassa]

Thanks mike, I will take some before and after pics and post them later...

[WRECKAMENDER]

I'm going to assume that being a 95 BMW that the black is likely the original paint and there is no need to strip this off to bare metal.That would be unecessary,best to leave the factory primer/sealer/paint alone except for sanding/etching it.The sooner you get at stripping the silver paint the easier it will be to remove.We use a product called Aircraft Paint Remover that's I believe is made by Kleen Strip.It resembles semi thawed frozen orange juice.Apply fairly heavy in one direction with a brush and watch the paint start to bubble and peal.It's a messy job and you have to take care not to get it on anything you don't want stripped,rubber gloves are a must.This stuff is nasty and will burn you.I would never recommend using brake fluid anywhere near paint or any petroleum based product for that matter or your gonna have big time fisheye problems!